Re. Total Confusion

Answers to questions posed.
1.) Why would you want to use wvdial when pon works? wvdial is just a hack
that tries to avoid making you set up pon.
It may be a personal peculiarity, but I like everything to work.
2.) It's been a long time since I used minicom, but am I totally wrong in
thinking it's a terminal emulator? I don't think it's supposed to do ppp
of any sort to begin with. What are you trying to do with it, and what's
not working? That leads me to...
Minicom has a dial function. It is not a terminal emulator.
3.) I think you had this problem last time you posted, and it's an issue
again. Linux gives you lots of good diagnostic information: log files,
verbose output from programs, etc. Rather than saying 'wvdial and minicom
won't work', if you're more specific about what you're trying and what
you're getting back then both you and your resopnders are less likely to
get frustrated with the process.

I have already answered this question today. Both wvdial and minicom
connect (the log says so) but they do not authenticate when they send in
the password. Oddly minicom was programmed to send both username and
password, but nevertheless asked for them after it was connected.